You're Under Arrest Special

Synopsis

This is a collection of 7-minute shorts showing Miyuki and Natsumi of the Bokutou Traffic Department in action while on and off duty.

Review

These OAVs were actually promotional shorts in the run-up to the release of the You're Under Arrest movie. They basically show the cast of You're Under Arrest tackling crimes and other...uh...offenses (we'll get to that later).

Of course you can't expect much of a story from 7-minute shorts, but there are three in each episode and each has a different situation that involves Miyuki and Natsumi. It's a comedy, and most of the offenses and the ways in which our cute policewomen handle them are quite entertaining, just like the rest of the YUA series.

What offenses, you say? For example, a guy breaks into Miyuki and Natsumi's apartment and trips their security system while rummaging through their underwear (okaaaay...). Or they are forced to teach a bunch of fan-service mad high school students how to ride a scooter (uh, riiiiight...). Or when a night-vision equipped Spiderman wannabe is stealing silk underwear from apartments in Yoriko's neighborhood (uh huh). Or a sneaky man has installed a hidden camera in the women's bathroom (urk!). The list goes on...

Wait a minute. Am I beginning to sense a pattern here?

Yes, you got it. Most of the shorts involve men trying to do perverted things, and who else to stop these menaces to society but the Bokutou police officers? It's not minor sex offenses all the time, but there are enough underwear-loving ecchi fellows to make you think two things:

1) All men are perverts (some may say that's not very far from the truth ^_^)
2) Most urban crimes in Japan involve underwear-loving ecchi fellows.

Okay, so maybe I'm wrong. But you can see the general direction of the shorts, and if you don't like seeing situations about minor sex offenses then you'd better stay away.

Lingerie aside, a major letdown was the animation. The art quality is quite poor for an OVA series and borders at low budget TV quality sometimes. The character designs also change very obviously from one resembling the manga characters to a pointy-nosed type occasionally. I'm not sure what the reason was, but it feels like the result of two different groups of artists staying in remote villages 200 miles apart who were working on the same project.

However, the action sequences are quite good - just like any You're Under Arrest series. Miyuki and Natsumi are no pushovers, and the Mini-Patrol car that they use isn't a pliant family car either. The music from the TV series is reused here, but generally it's all fun and exciting.

Action-wise, it's just what you can expect from You're Under Arrest. If you're a fan of the series or are looking for some quick 7-minute fun then you could give this a try. If a police comedy isn't your type, then don't.

Lastly, if you want to get the movie after watching this, *please* check out the review before buying it because the movie is rather different from what the Specials might have you expect.

If you like watching men play with women's underwear then add a star (I *really* hope you don't). If you don't like the theme of most of the shorts as explained above then subtract two stars. — Enoch Lau

Recommended Audience: The minor sex crimes theme of most of the shorts might put off some people (especially parents). There are also one or two scenes with fake breasts and some women's locker room shots. No graphic violence and rough language, though.